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Saturday, October 28, 2006

The hijab, and what wearing one means

This article came in to my news filter because of Hatem Bazian. He's an official nutball because he is on record with his desire to bring violent insurrection to America. In this case, he is simply speaking in favor of wearing the hijab. Nothing insidious here, right?

The Quran, in general, talks about dressing in modesty,"...

"One reference (in the Quran) is to cover the bosom, as the Quran suggests that the hair was already being covered at that time. Covering is important so that women are protected — to prevent the turning of heads. But this is also found in other religions. For example, those visiting the Vatican must cover their heads in modesty as well."

The message is subtle, but it is real. The message is "good" Muslim women must be covered to remove temptation from men. Because, with being covered, whatever evil transpires, is at least partially the fault of the woman. The concept is un-American.

And, least we forget that the article quoted above is about a murder. My sympathies go out to the family of Alia Ansari who was brutally murdered on the streets of Oakland. Her death was senseless, but it appears to be random. I hope it was not related to her religion.

On the other hand, politicizing Ansari's death by speculating that she was killed because of the wearing a hajib is transparently dishonest. Writing a newspaper article in favor of "Wear a Hijab Day" is pandering to unsubstantiated Islamic persecution fears and their desire to spread the faith. Using a Ansari's death to further Islamic attempts to cover women head-to-toe is ghastly and blatantly political. The politics of Islam is just as disquieting as the politics of right wing fundies.

I wish there were more people who could see the obvious transparent ploys in the "hate crime" angle. You're absolutely right.

Police haven't even named anyone as a suspect, but you wouldn't know this from the coverage this has been getting. In fact, there have been a few imams who have written op-ed pieces where instead of waiting for the truth to come in, they blatantly lie and say that the police have declared it a hate crime.

There was another shooting in this same family four years ago over a "spurned relationship". The SF Chronicle mentioned this in their first coverage of the story--buried under about fifteen paragraphs which blame American media, talk-radio and Christians, of course.

Playing dumb! When someone is murdered outright for no apparent reason, only common sense would indicate the crime had to be for some REASON! A half-naked woman, for instance, who is abducted off the street, then raped/murdered, would indicate a sex crime in most minds. Of course this murder was JUST THAT... a hate crime. She wasn't raped was she; just murdered in cold-blood right then and there!

Instead of blasting women who dress in strict modesty according to their religious tenets, let's blast OUR women who leave men with no mystery as to whether they have hair or a bikini wax job! Do we want our women to be respected or do we enjoy having other men thinking only of our women as a thing to 'boink'?

I prefer the mother of my kids to be decent and respectable; not some bimbo that's been done by every Joe in town.